Youth Sports Blog Roundup for August 22nd, 2012

Below you will find a few of our favorite blog posts that are related to youth sports, youth sports coaching and sports parenting from the past few weeks. Please feel free to visit each and we hope you find them as helpful as we do!

“Will You Still Love Me If I Don’t Win?”

What should a young player think when her parents take her out for ice cream after the team wins, but not after the team loses? Or after the player gets the big hit or scores the big touchdown, but not after he strikes out or fumbles the ball?

105 degrees. The weather app on my phone tells me how hot it feels outside, but I can feel it personally. I’m sweating while I type this column as I sit outside a coffee shop at 5:00 PM. Imagine what it would feel like to be a 300-pound, 15-year-old football player running up and down a football field wearing a full uniform, pads, and a helmet.

So, Hockey Moms, consider this a public service announcement. When your team us up by several goals (and the consensus seems to be a 5 goal lead) it’s time to tone down your cheering – substantially. Most of us believe that one benefit of youth hockey is that it teaches sportsmanship, and when you continue to cheer loudly for every goal, your own sportsmanship comes into question.

1. Don’t play hard: You can have the most talented team in the world, you can have the most intelligent team in the world, but if your team doesn’t play hard, there is no chance that they will be successful over the course of time. You must, before all else, establish and demand that your players play hard. It must be your identity.

Concussions unfortunately are a part of playing youth sports and just being a kid. Playing at the local playground, riding bikes or just fooling around can put your child at risk for a concussion. The answer is not to put your kid a plastic bubble, however, parents can help their children with these 10 Top Tips to Reduce or Prevent Kids Concussions in Sports:

I still can, it was my high school weight room and I was maybe 14 years old. Men, four years older than me were lifting much more than I could imagine, grunting, cursing, and straining their way to be better at their sport. I was told what the workout was and went to it.